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“HAIL has grown over the years and has developed alongside the ever changing world”.
About Hail
Our History
Haringey Association for Independent Living (HAIL) was set up in 1986 which means that we have 18 years experience of supporting people with a learning disability. HAIL is a voluntary organisation, non for profit, registered under the Industrial and Providence Societies Act 1985. During this time many things have changed:
The government has worked to support people with a learning disability to have equal rights with any other citizen
People with a learning disability have been better protection from people who wish them harm
People who provide support services to people with a learning disability have been required to meet better standards of care and support, and these standards have to be backed up by evidence
The communities in which we work have become more diverse, we have to learn and share our work with all community groups
People with a learning disability have become more involved and included within their own services (not before time). Service user consultation has helped services listen and provide services which meet individual need
HAIL was set up to support people with a learning disability who were living in large hospitals as well as people who were living at home with their parents and family. The government decided that large institutions did not support individual rights and choices and therefore should be shut down.
HAIL worked closely in partnership with Haringey Social Services and the Health Service in identify housing options which provided people with a learning disability housing and support within the community close to their roots: family and friends.
HAIL also developed links and partnerships with housing providers to provide choice to people with a learning disability as well as ensuring that we worked in a way which gave our service users rights of tenure and protection under housing legislation. HAIL worker closely with local Housing Associations and Haringey Housing Department, and more recently has developed links with private landlords within the community.
HAIL has grown over the years and has developed alongside the ever changing world. HAIL has seen greater recognition of the rights of people with a learning disability and a change in regard to how people wit disabilities are valued by the community.
So what made things change?
Community Care considered the closure of long stay hospitals and people with a learning disability being supported within a community setting
Care Standards Act introduced improved standards to the existing Registered Homes Act, making services more accountable as well as improving physical and care standards
Valuing People finally acknowledged that people with a learning disability have the same rights as any other citizen. It called for inclusion and people with a learning disability being actively involved in developing and planning services. It also called for a Partnership Board to include all stakeholders to be actively involved in services
Supporting People finally separated housing costs and support costs and gave greater choice in regard to housing and support options, moving away from models which were still seen as institutionalised
Providers of services were also asked to prove their competencies and integrity. Staff was asked to undertake enhanced police checks under the Criminal Records Bureau, and the Protection of Vulnerable Adults from Abuse List was introduced in 2004 to ensure that people who worked in care and support services were fit to do so.
Care and support was finally recognised as a profession with staff having accredited training and a career structure. The Learning Disabilities Awards Framework (LDAF) and National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ)helped staff gain the competencies to provide a good standard of care, this helped services better meet service user need.
Advocacy and Inclusion were active to ensure that people with a learning disability had a clear say in how they wanted to be supported, where they wanted to live, and who they wanted to live with. People with a learning disability now had a lead role in their own services which not only considered their current support but also their future support and their wishes and aspirations. Person Centred Planning supported service users not only to tell providers what they wanted but also ensured that regular feedback was given and service users had a right to complain if services were not meeting need. Direct payments allowed even greater control for services.
HAIL worked to continually improve services to better meet service user need and also to provide evidence to service users and people who commissioned the services evidence of how HAIL was supporting need and also recognising and celebrating achievements made.
To see how this changed the face of HAIL please click here (powerpoint)
HAIL works in partnership with people with a learning disability and we value this relationship. We know that we need to listen and respond to our service users together with working in partnership with commissioners and the local community to help us in our future work.
